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About Us

CALNOC Leadership Team

Harriet Udin Aronow, PhD

CALNOC Data Management Services Director
Dr. Aronow has a doctorate in applied social psychology from Claremont Graduate University, nationally known for its program in evaluation research. She has had a 40 year career in health services research and evaluation in health care delivery settings with positions and projects at RAND, UCLA, WISE & Healthy Aging, University of La Verne and Casa Colina Centers for Rehabilitation. Currently she is a Research Scientist in Nursing at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Director of Data Management Services for the Collaborative Alliance for Nursing Outcomes. Dr. Aronow’s work has largely been interprofessional team based research and has focused on evaluation of home and community-based preventive health interventions, health services for vulnerable populations, and nursing outcomes and quality improvement.

Carolyn Aydin, PhD

Carolyn Aydin is a Research Scientist and CALNOC Data Management Services Director at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Burns & Allen Research Institute. Dr. Aydin has over 30 years of experience in database management. She has conducted and published research on the implementation and impacts of medical information systems at several large medical centers and her background includes experience in evaluating the impacts of innovations in both health care and education. Dr. Aydin designed and launched CALNOC’s innovative programs to collect and submit data into the CALNOC repository in 1998. She leads the CALNOC analysis team at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, producing reports for participating clinical facilities and the CALNOC research team. She was Co Principal Investigator with Dr. Donaldson on the RWJF INQRI Study, Impact of Microsystem Staffing Characteristics of Processes and Outcomes She is co-editor of two books and author of numerous journal articles. Dr. Aydin received her PhD from University of Southern California.

Linda Burnes Bolton, Dr.PH, RN, FAAN

CALNOC Founding Member, Co-Data Manager & Collaborating Scientist

Linda Burnes Bolton is Vice President for Nursing, Chief Nursing Officer and Director of Nursing Research at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. She has provided leadership for several state and national programs including service as chair of the National Advisory Committee for Transforming Care at the Bedside, VA Commission on Nursing and vice chair of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Initiative on the Future of Nursing at the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Burnes Bolton is a founding member of CALNOC and serves as Co-Data Manager and Ad Hoc Collaborating Scientist. She is a past president of the American Academy of Nursing and the National Black Nurses Association. In 2010 she was elected as the Region 9 representative on the AONE board of directors. In 2011 she was named one of the top twenty five women in healthcare by Modern Healthcare magazine and the Los Angeles Business Journal ten healthcare executives. An endowed nursing leadership scholarship in her name was established at UCLA School of Nursing in 2011. Dr. Burnes Bolton received her Dr.PH from University of California, Los Angeles.

Diane Storer Brown, PhD, RN, CPHQ, FNAHQ, FAAN

CALNOC Founding Member & Senior Scientist

Diane Storer Brown, PhD, RN, CPHQ, FNAHQ, FAAN, is the Regional Executive Director for Medicare Strategy and Operations for Kaiser Foundation Hospitals/Health Plan in the Northern California Region. In this role she is responsible for leadership of an integrated program across the continuum to transform care to enable our aging population to live well and have access to affordable quality health care. Dr. Brown was previously the Regional Executive Director for Care Coordination, and Strategic Leader for Hospital Accreditation Programs, a position involving accreditation leadership with 21 hospitals to assure high-quality, safe patient care. Dr. Brown has served on multiple state and national committees which provide hospital industry leadership. She is known professionally for her significant contributions to the quality and nursing fields through her research and practical application of quality methods explicated in multiple peer reviewed publications. As a founding leader and senior scientist of the Collaborative Alliance for Nursing Outcomes (CALNOC), she has influenced regional, national, and international efforts to improve the quality of patient care, safety, and outcomes in acute care hospitals. Most recently she has been engaged in a collaboration with the American Association for Ambulatory Care Nursing, to extend nursing sensitive quality measurement into the ambulatory environment. Her research endeavors have focused on building capacity for nursing quality and safety measurement, research that examines nursing care, and translating emerging research findings to directly improve practice. Her leadership and accomplishments in the fields of both quality and safety and in nursing have been affirmed through fellow status with the National Association for Healthcare Quality and the American Academy of Nursing. Dr. Brown earned her doctorate and master’s degrees from the University of California San Francisco School of Nursing, and her bachelor’s degree from Viterbo University in LaCrosse Wisconsin.

Joanne Spetz, PhD

CALNOC Collaborative Scientist
Joanne Spetz is a Professor of Economics at the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at UCSF, and in the UCSF School of Nursing. She also is a Faculty Researcher at the UCSF Center for the Health Professions. Joanne is a Collaborative Scientist with CALNOC. Since the early 1990s, she has studied the nursing labor market and the contributions of nursing in the U.S. health care system. She has led national and state surveys of registered nurses and nursing schools, evaluations of programs to expand the supply of nurses, research on the effects of health information technologies in hospitals, studies of hospital industry structure, and analysis of the effects of minimum nurse staffing regulations on patients and hospitals. Joanne was a member of the National Commission on VA Nursing, and is an advisor to the Institute of Medicine Initiative on the Future of Nursing. Joanne received her Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University after studying economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Tony Sung

CALNOC Chief Executive Officer

Tony Sung has over 25 years’ experience in IT executive management and service operations, and serves as Chief Executive Officer at CALNOC, responsible for the day to day operations as well as the implementation of corporate strategy imperatives. Prior to joining CALNOC, Mr. Sung was President/CEO of the Gold Mountain Group, a strategy and management consulting firm specializing in early start-up and high growth companies. He was Vice President of Customer Service and Training for KANA Software, a Service Experience Management Company, where he was responsible for assuring 90%+ service revenue renewals with highly rated customer satisfaction. Prior to KANA, he was Vice President of Customer Service and Training for Commerce One, the first B2B Global Trading Network, where he grew the service revenues to $100M with global service centers in EMEA, Americas and Asia Pacific. While at Commerce One, Mr. Sung was responsible for the establishment and cultivation of the Customer Advisory Board, representing executives from the Fortune 50 companies. He has held executive positions with such notable firms as Netscape Communications, Actra Business Systems, Sybase and Powersoft. Tony Sung received his Bachelor’s from State University of New York, Stony Brook.